The story is about a young boy named Hiro, his brother Tadashi, and a robot named Baymax. Hiro has lost his way and is starting down a path that his brother does not want to see him on. Tadashi manages to trick Hiro into visiting his school and introduces him to his friends who are all Scientist or Engineers in one way or another. Well except for Fred, he is just the school mascot. This visit inspires Hiro who decides he wants to join his brother. Hiro is a robotics genius and has been making money fighting in illegal backroom battles up to this point. With the help of Tadashi and his friends he is able to make something truly amazing and wows everybody at the audition. If everything went well however, we would be left without much of a movie. Suffice to say something bad happens, and a villain is born. Hiro teams up with Baymax, a nurse robot, and goes after the bad guy.
The movie is based off of a older comic series with ties to the X-men franchise. That comic book series was awful. Seriously don't go read it, trust me on this. The heroes are all pretty unlikable, which given their ages makes sense. And they vary so much from their movie counterparts, that the only real connection is the names. Wasabi no Ginger goes from being a magic blade wielding sushi shef, to a hippy simply called Wasabi. Honey Lemon goes from being the sex symbol of the team and fighting with only a open jacket to a frumpy conservative. Baymax is the biggest change from not only his abilities to his entire persona. While these may sound like changes I didn't like, it is actually the opposite. They changed all the characters into more likable and better variations of themselves. They even changed all their powers to be science based which was cool. They created a team that children could look up to, and that parents wouldn't mind their kids being exposed to.
There are a lot of great moments in this film. From the low power Baymax sequence that makes him appear almost intoxicated, to pretty much every battle sequence. The film has a lot of emotion early on and does a good job of carrying it for the duration. I never felt like I wasn't invested once it took off. And a lot of that has to do with the great writing and voice work. There are a few known names in the film. Alan Tudyk has a decent size role. Damon Wayans Jr. who you may remember from the simply awful "Let's be Cops." Maya Rudoph played Hiro and Tadashi's aunt Cass. And T.J. Miller played Fred, the school mascot and comedic relief of the film. Everybody did very well however, even those I did not mention. Everything about the presentation of the film was spot on and really added to the overall experience. The art style was amazing and I loved the city shots. The animation was fluid and when the robots and battles started up, it was damn impressive to see.
The movie had a good comedic tone to which surprised me. Baymax had a simple intelligence and constantly had me laughing with how the robot responded to the world. From his fist bumping, to the way he talked about the cat. He never failed to make me smile, and I don't recall any of his attempts at humor just falling short. He also provided some of the more emotional moments in the film. I really enjoyed this character, and would say he is easily the best thing Pixar has come up with in years. Fred was the other spectrum of the comedy. He was stupid, but in a good way. He had some good moments, but nothing that compares to Baymax. Also he had a entire segment about his underwear that was a complete miss for me. It is only worth mentioning as it was also re-used in the post credits scene. That one may not be worth sitting around for, at least it wasn't to me.
So Big Hero 6 at a glance.....Good story with strong emotion and great moments. Stunning animation that is fluid and visually appealing. Great voice work and mostly solid writing. Add in a strong ending that had my full attention until the credits started, and you have a solid winner in my book. The fact that they changed all the characters to be better influences is a plus. And I loved the way they mixed up the power sets.
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